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  Business   37 mobile manufacturing plants set up in last 1 year: IT Minister

37 mobile manufacturing plants set up in last 1 year: IT Minister

PTI
Published : Aug 27, 2016, 6:08 pm IST
Updated : Aug 27, 2016, 6:08 pm IST

11 crore mobile phones have been made in the country in last one year compared to 6 crore earlier.

Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad
 Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

11 crore mobile phones have been made in the country in last one year compared to 6 crore earlier.

New Delhi:

India has attracted investment from 37 mobile manufacturing companies in last one year that have generated 40,000 direct jobs and 1.25 lakh indirect employment, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on August 27.

"We decided to make India a big hub of electronics manufacturing. In the last one year, 37 new mobile manufacturing units have come," Prasad said after inaugurating government-funded 'Electropreneur Park'.

He said that 11 crore mobile phones have been made in the country in last one year compared to 6 crore earlier.

"We have given jobs to forty-thousand people and 1.25 lakh indirect jobs," Prasad said.

Chinese companies like Gionee and Xiaomi are making their handsets at Foxconn plant in Andhra Pradesh. Domestic companies such as Karbonn, Lava, Micromax, Intex, Jivi, iTel, and MTech too have set up their manufacturing plants in the country.

As per industry sources, Chinese company LeEco will start mobile manufacturing unit on Tuesday. Prasad said that besides manufacturing electronics product in India, product designing is also important.

He said that government has provided Rs 10,000 crore under Electronics Development Fund to support new entrepreneurs in the field of electronics.

The Electropreneur Park (EP), which was innaugurated today in South Campus of Delhi University, is an incubation centre set up with government funds of around Rs 21 crore to support incubation of up to 50 companies.

Set-up in collaboration with academia and industry represented by Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association, the Park will focus on creation of intellectual property rights and product development to increase domestic manufacturing of electronics items.

"India imports electronic goods of over Rs 3 lakh crore. By 2020 government aims to bring down import to zero. The Electropreneur Park started today is a step in that direction," Minister of State for IT and Law P P Choudhary said.

Ministry of Electronics and IT has selected six start-up firms that will develop products at this incubation centre.